He received the ACMTuring Award, the most prestigious award in computer science, jointly with Raj Reddy in 1994 "For pioneering the design and construction of large scale artificial intelligence systems, demonstrating the practical importance and potential commercial impact of artificial intelligence technology".
A former chief scientist of the Air Force, he received the U.S. Air Force Exceptional Civilian Service Award in 1997. In 2007 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.